Quote:
Originally Posted by Seducio
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Put 100 random atheists in a room and test their individual belief structures via written test. The results might not look like they all believe the same thing. The atheists most likely would disagree with each other as much as they would with believers.
Put 100 random Christians in a room and test their individual belief structures via written test. The results might not look like they all believe the same thing. They would disagree with each other despite being all Christian. Hence there are all the different churches and sects of Christianity.
What you find is each individual human has a belief structure that differs enough that the label given cannot account for the complete world view that each human has.
As best as I can tell most humans that call themself Christian do it as virtue signal not as a matter of what they believe in their day to day behavior. Rather it is a signal to others in their community that they share the same beliefs so they can belong.
That Christian virtue signal use to carry more weight in USA than it currently does and so some folks are struggling on how to act in the current environment because it used to be simple to just be on the right team. It's harder to tell now. The Woke virtue signal is going through a similar mea culpa on the left as people are questioning whether that is the right team also.
Confirmation bias is the default for humans. The wiser among us attack our own beliefs with all we've got. Whatever survives is what was actually strong enough within us in the first place.
In the age of information I have awareness that the amount of information available is doubling at astronomical rate. If I were a Christian I wouldn't be worried about atheists. I would be worried about AI creating a better story of heaven.
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My friend was brought up in a hypercalvinist sect that believes God has already chosen all who would be saved, and therefore there is no way to get into heaven through belief or conversion because God has already made the decision before the world was made.
Calvinists believe that there is an 'Elect' group of people who are pre-chosen to go to heaven, and they are revealed by doing good deeds that god makes himself obvious through. Now how do you know god makes himself obvious through a particular good deed? Because good things happen to you, maybe. In truth, Calvinists disagree on this, and what constitutes a 'good deed'. In some sects, simply praying a lot and accepting god and jesus is enough to be considered a 'good deed'.
Then you have Calvinists who also see baptism as a requirement to be saved, because an Elect in their view can still be damned by not being baptized or failing to do good deeds.
This brought some Calvinists into conflict with Catholics. Catholics believe good deeds are necessary to get into heaven and there's no pre-election. So it's Good Deeds Get You Into Heaven vs You Know You're Going To Heaven Because You Did Good Deeds And Saw God In Them.
and then
With the fractitious nature of Christianity, there's a signifcant subset of Calvinists who believe every other kind of Christian (especially Catholics) are going to Hell because they are not elect. So even dyed in the wool Christians who have done nothing but be charitable and kind are damned because they are not one of the Elect.
As for my family, they were Methodists and Catholics. Methodism is considered a Arminian doctrine branch of Protestantism. Arminians believe Jesus Christ died for the sins of all humanity, and there is no such thing as a special Elect because it goes against God's merciful nature.
Hell, there's some subsects of Aminians who believe anyone who is good in general and does good deeds is automatically going to some form of heaven. The Hindu man who spends 50 years of his life replanting an entire forest to help improve soil conditions, bring back endangered animals, and prevent flooding of his home village is just as heaven-bound as Cheryl who works at Kroger's and goes to church every Sunday.
But then you also need to know there's other branches of Christianity who believe that only belief in Jesus will spare you eternal damnation, and that any sin can be forgiven, and sincerely believe that Ted Bundy (who converted in jail) is more deserving of heaven than the hypothetical Hindu guy just because Ted Bundy believed in Jesus.
Note: While Dr. Dobson seemed to believe Ted was genuine in his conversion, others who interacted with Bundy in his final days believe it was less genuine and more Ted suddenly realizing he was about to die. One guard even said Ted's loud praying for 'everyone' seemed performative. If I remember right, Dobson himself later seemed to also have some doubts to Ted's sincerity, but ultimately decided it's all up to god's own mercy.